Patent litigation in China during the last five years in details

According to the Report on Litigation in China in the Last 5 Years, 45,561 intellectual property disputes were settled between October 2016 and October 2021. Civil cases accounted for 36,883 of the total, or 80.95 percent of the total.

In 2018, the number of patent lawsuits hit an all-time high. Every year, December is the busiest month for patent lawsuits.

The proportions of cases that involve inventions, utility models, and appearances were 20.81 percent, 31.15 percent, and 48.05 percent, respectively, among the completed first-instance cases. Cases involving designs accounted for the largest proportion of second-instance cases, at 39.5 percent.

In-depth look of patent litigation in China during the previous five years.

Infringement lawsuits involving inventions, utility models, and designs accounted for 13.8 percent, 30.47 percent, and 55.73 percent of all infringement cases, with designs accounting for the most.

Between October 2016 and October 2021, 31 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions were involved in the cases, with Guangdong, Beijing, and Zhejiang coming out on top.

Guangdong has completed 15,649 patent litigation cases, Beijing has completed 10652, and Zhejiang has completed 4,661 in the last five years (through October 2021).

Intellectual property courts accounted for 30.22 percent of Chinese patent litigation courts (mostly in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou), intermediate courts accounted for 39 percent, high courts accounted for 20.08 percent, and the Supreme Court accounted for 7.11 percent.

H04N, F21V, and F16K were the center of litigation in disputes regarding inventions and utility models. The cases concerning designs in the field of 26-05 account for the majority of the total.

Patent infringement lawsuits in China accounted for 54.73 percent of the total, with design patent conflicts accounting for a major part of the total.